Did the crooked man who had a crooked house also have a crooked cat? We do. It's two weeks to the day since our Pearl came down with feline vestibular syndrome (see the post under that name, below) and, while she's far better than she was, she's still--well, crooked.
This is a disorder of unknown origin (it can strike dogs, too) that affects the nerves of the inner ear. Thus, it's classified as a neurological disease--a scary thought. Inner ear means balance, and Pearl's main symptom, now that the weird back-and-forth flicking of the eyes has (mercifully) passed, is balance problems. Her tilted head means she's still seeing the world at an angle. She can stand and walk without falling over, thank God, and can even jump on and off the bed and land on her feet. But she veers off-course when walking, flops onto her side if she has to, for example, scratch herself, and lists to the side when she tries to walk up the stairs.
She's getting restless in confinement (I've been keeping her with me in whatever room I'm occupying at the moment), but when given the run of the house she soon gets tired and disoriented and asks to go back to the bedroom to sleep in her basket. Too much activity makes her dizzy, and afterwards she craves rest.
Another telltale sign: her twitching tail. We first noticed that the tail was wagging in a jerky and erratic manner two weeks ago today, when all this started. Now it's better, as she slowly improves, but will still twitch in funny ways from time to time, as if it had a mind of its own. George reminds me that the tail is an integral part of the feline system of balance, so I guess it's no surprise that Pearl's poor tail is out of sync with the rest of her.
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